Are Virtual Influencers the Future of Influencer Marketing?

A virtual influencer is an avatar with its own social media profile, often created by tech companies specializing in AI. While some avatars look so human-like that one can be mistaken to be a real person, others can easily be identified as artificial characters. You might ask yourself: Isn’t influencer marketing all about authenticity and realness? Why would you take suggestions from someone without their own personality? Here are some of the advantages of virtual Influencer Marketing:

Through their intriguing appearance, some virtual influencers have quickly gained a big following on various social media platforms. This allowed them to collaborate with brands aiming to get attention through creative and innovative campaigns. The avatars have no physical or geographical limitations, which allows a brand to directly translate its vision into reality. This also enables significant cuts in production costs for various aspects of a campaign. However, this is not the only area in which companies can save money; as of today, the commission for virtual influencers tends to be much lower than the one for a real person with the same amount of followers and engagement levels.

Living in a time where cancel culture is very prevalent, cooperating with virtual influencers can also avoid possible controversy. They start off with a completely clean slate and are controlled by their management team. Therefore, their comments on controversial topics are limited and thoroughly thought through.

However, this lack of human-like personality is also a disadvantage of virtual influencer marketing that must be addressed. An avatar can only create a shared brand image to a certain extent. Followers are less likely to take recommendations from an artificial personality that is not able to test the product themselves, as their opinion could never be 100% authentic. 

Instead, they are a great business partner for corporate influencer marketing, which requires a significant amount of brand safety. Partnering up with them for storytelling can be beneficial as they are brand ambassadors that stand behind your company 100%.

While the concept of virtual influencers seems very new and almost futuristic, it has been around longer than we think. In a way, Barbie can be seen as one of the first virtual influencers. For several years, she has had her own social media presence as a vlogger on YouTube and partaking in popular trends on TikTok.

Lil Miquela, Noonoouri, Magazine Luiza, and Guggimon are some of the most popular virtual influencers today. They partner with big brands, attend events, and have photoshoots with celebrities, as they are often signed by big modeling agencies.

While traditional influencers will not be replaced by virtual ones any time soon, virtual influencer marketing is definitely a trend to keep in mind as the Metaverse and gamification progress. These digital avatars could become important business partners, especially for storytelling. However, they shouldn’t be used as a front to discuss controversial topics that a brand otherwise wouldn’t take a stance on.

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